Team 45
by WynterSky
Summary: Itachi and Shisui were genin once, too. But can they manage to make their genin squad into a functioning team and survive their first missions?
1. Chapter 1: Graduation Day

[A/N: Writing from Shisui's POV is fun. Writing about Shisui and kidling!Itachi is also fun. So now you've got this. Will probably be updated sparsely, though.]

Graduation Day:  
>Shisui huffed in boredom, staring around the crowded examination room as he waited for his turn. Itachi was standing behind him, being far more still than Shisui had ever thought was possible for a seven-year-old. For both of them, the graduation exams were only a formality—Shisui was second-best in the class and the only thing preventing Itachi from being a mid-level Chuunin already was his small size and still-limited stamina. The Hokage had purportedly had to pull a lot of strings to keep him from being graduated at five.<p>

The examiners were not being particularly strict this year (Ibiki had finally been transferred to T&I where he belonged), so only a few children so far had been denied a headband. That, of course, was not a sure ticket to genin, but Shisui didn't have any worries on that score.

Nara Ayako caught Shisui's eye from across the room, and he gave her his best 'fetching smile', the one that got him fussed over at parties. She smiled back. Before Shisui could do anything else, however, a very familiar small hand tugged at his jacket.

"What is it, Itachi?" he whispered in annoyance, then suddenly realized that there wasn't anyone else in front of him. Yuugao snickered, and Shisui glared at her before stepping forward to face the examiners.

The three jutsu required for graduation were very easy. In fact, they were absurdly, painfully, ridiculously easy. He almost considered trying out his sweet new fry-every-circuit-in-the-room jutsu just to show them what he could really do, but decided that that might not be a very good idea. The examiners might not look too kindly on him if they had to finish the exams in the dark.

After he finished, he got his headband (duh) and went over to see if he could sit next to Ayako. He didn't watch to see how Itachi did, but it wasn't as if he needed to or anything. Predictably, Itachi appeared next to them after a few moments, headband in hand. Ayako immediately started cooing about how he was so grown up now, and he must be so excited, and could she help him tie his headband on?

Shisui really hated it when the girls paid more attention to his baby cousin than to him. Sure, he liked Itachi, but he could be a bit of a drag sometimes.

Soon, everyone had a headband who was going to get one, and the head examiner shouted for everybody to shut up. Since Ibiki wasn't there to terrify them into silence, this took a little while, but eventually it was quiet enough for the teacher to make himself heard.

There was a not-especially-interesting speech about blah blah blah you are now genin (yay!) blah blah serve the village, etc., etc. After that, the jounin senseis started coming in to get their teams.

This year, there were thirty graduates. Somebody had to be fudging to make it come out even every year. Shisui had hoped to end up on a team with Ayako, or barring that Yuugao, but they were called for the first two teams.

Finally, the only genin left were Shisui, Itachi, and—oh no. This could not be right. There had to be another girl in the washroom, or the nurse's office, or something! There was no way he was stuck on a team with Hyuuga Kimiko. Right? Please?

"What's this, babysitting duty?" a sharp, frigid voice said from beside him.

Shisui jumped. She must have snuck over while he was panicing. "Uh, no. This is my cousin, Itachi." There was no way Kimiko did not know this. She had sparred with Itachi—and usually lost.

"Really," Kimiko scoffed, transferring her glare to Itachi. "How old are you, five?"

"Hyuuga-san, I am seven years old." Ouch. When Itachi spoke that politely, he was probably planning a demise (figuratively. Figuratively.).

"Whatever." With neither Shisui nor Itachi rising to her bait, Kimiko stalked off to the corner of the room to sit by herself.

Shisui banged his forehead onto the desk with a groan. Why him?

"Is something wrong, Shisui-san?"

"For the last time, Itachi," Shisui said, sitting up and rubbing his forehead (he really should have put the headband on first), "Stop calling me Shisui-san. And yes, something is wrong," he added, gesturing to where Kimiko was ignoring them.

Itachi raised one eyebrow, in an expression that looked entirely too adult. "What's wrong with her, Shisui-san? She is...competent."

"Yeah, at being a total pain. Where's our sensei, anyway, shouldn't he be here by now?"

Nobody answered Shisui's question, of course, so he began poking around for something to do. There was nothing to read besides the same dull textbooks, so he occupied himself be setting an elaborate trap for their sensei. He was asking for it by being late, anyway.

"Shisui-san, I think you should leave the wiring alone," Itachi said once he noticed what Shisui was doing.

"Oh, come on, Itachi, it'll be fine. It's not like they can't fix it or anything."

"Are you trying to fry our sensei?"

Shisui winced at Kimiko's shriek. "No! I mean, any jounin worth his rank should see it coming, right?"

"We will find out very soon," Itachi said quietly.

"Shisui, get the wires away from the door!"

"Don't you tell me what to do!"

Kimiko dove for Shisui. Shisui ducked, and she fell flat on her face, getting up furious. Neither of them paid any attention to where they were, or Itachi's warning. At last, Itachi tried to pull them out of the way, but was too small to make any headway.

Shisui hit the wire first. Yeah, that was pretty stupid, was his last coherent thought. Kimiko, whose arm he had been holding at the time, was in a similar state.

Finally, the power shut off, and both of them sank to the floor. Unfortunately for Shisui, Kimiko recovered first and got a few good clouts in before he could grab her in a headlock.

"Children, please..."

Shisui dropped Kimiko and both turned around to see who their sensei was.

"Hizashi," Kimiko drawled, her voice fairly dripping with contempt.

Shisui moaned inwardly. Their genin career had already gotten off to a horrible start, and now it seemed it was getting worse.


	2. Interlude: First Assessment

Team 45 Initial Assessment:  
>Based on observing them before and during the exam, and while they waited for my arrival.<p>

Hyuuga Kimiko:  
>Competent, but willful.<p>

Uchiha Shisui:  
>Skilled, but easily bored, with a propensity for life-threatening practical jokes.<p>

Uchiha Itachi:  
>Skilled and intelligent. However, he is overshadowed by the other two.<p>

Teamwork assessment:  
>I observed none. Their passing the secondary test is doubtful.<p>

_Hyuuga Hizashi_


	3. Chapter 2: The Test

The Test:  
>"Now, if you will return to your seats, please?"<p>

Kimiko rolled her eyes, but obeyed nonetheless. Shisui sat back down next to Itachi, who looked up at him worriedly.

"Are you all right, Shisui-san?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, sure, fine. Now shush," Shisui added, as Hizashi glared in their direction. Kimiko had been just as at fault as Shisui, so why couldn't Hizashi-sensei glare at her too? He hadn't even made eye contact with her once yet.

"As you have probably surmised already," Hizashi went on, "I have been appointed as your team's mentor…that is, if you pass the second test."

Shisui had already known about the second test, but he tried to look surprised anyway. Itachi didn't even bother. Kimiko had not known, apparently, and protested loudly, which only served to remind Shisui of how much he hadn't wanted her on his team in the first place. Hizashi ignored her.

"Please pay attention," Hizashi continued. "I have hidden something extremely valuable somewhere in the village. Your objective is to find it; and the last one to do so will be returned to the academy…as will anyone else who fails to find it. You could potentially all fail."

"But that's not fair!" Kimiko whined.

"For a shinobi, not being fair is the point, Kimiko-sama," Hizashi said calmly, although Shisui noticed that he still avoided looking at her eyes. "You have three hours. Go on now!" he said, making a shooing motion towards the door.

Shisui sighed and slumped down in his chair as Kimiko stormed out of the room. Itachi looked back and forth between Shisui and the door. "Shisui-san, aren't you going?"

"What? No!" Shisui replied. "This is a free pass out of this crazy mess and _away_ from _her_."

"But—"

"And don't call me Shisui-san, okay? Go on, and wake me up when you get back." He gave Itachi a gentle nudge in the direction of the door, then leaned back and closed his eyes.

He quickly opened them when a fist-sized ball of water splattered across his face. Itachi was perched on the desk, forming the seals for another water jutsu. Shisui ducked, and the water splashed onto the floor behind him.

"Shisui-san, let's _go._"

"Okay, you win," Shisui conceded, following Itachi out the door. Sometimes he had been laughed at by the other kids because he let Itachi boss him around, but considering that the only thing Shisui had over Itachi right now was the fact that his chakra networks were fully developed while Itachi's weren't, he had figured that he had better get used to it. Itachi usually had pretty good plans, anyway.

Once they got outside, Kimiko was nowhere to be seen. However, her chakra trail lead away from the building, and by how thinly it was stretched, she must have been running. "She doesn't have any idea," Shisui remarked.

Itachi looked up at him curiously. "What makes you say that, Shisui-san?"

"She wouldn't be in such a rush if she knew where she was going. You have any ideas?"

"He would have put it somewhere where either there would be no witnesses to give any clues, or everyone would be in on it," Itachi began. "Also, by how confident he seemed that we would be unable to find it, it is something very familiar to him, possibly hidden in 'plain sight'."

"And people wonder why I keep you around…" Shisui teased. "Well, going by that, I'd say we should try the Hyuuga compound. That does give Kimiko a bit of an advantage, though."

"Hizashi-sensei would not have been apprised of the identity of his team members very far in advance," Itachi pointed out as they hurried in the direction of the Hyuuga compound. "He likely would have already set up the test before learning who would be taking it."

The gates of the compound were open, but Shisui and Itachi got a lot of funny looks as they entered. The Hyuuga and the Uchiha, being the only two doujutsu-possessing clans in the village, never got on very well. Their rivalry was mostly unspoken; children glaring at each other across a classroom, or their older counterparts pettily trying to undermine each other. All in all, it was unpleasant, but only rarely ended with violence.

"Okay," Shisui said, ignoring the fact that he and Itachi were in the middle of an intersection as he stopped to look around. "We're here. So, what would be important to Hizashi-sensei?"

"Does he have any children?" Itachi inquired.

Shisui started to reply, then stopped. "And _that_," he said, "is why everybody says you're a genius. Let's go!"

When the brother of the Hyuuga clan head had a child, that was the sort of thing that got an announcement in the newspaper. 'Hyuuga Neji, born July 3rd, 7.8 lb, 17 inches.'

Shisui wouldn't have remembered that, except that had happened to be in the morning paper the day after he first gained his Sharingan, two years ago. He had actually memorized the whole paper, and been the go-to person for sports statistics in the Academy for the next week.

The question was, where did the Hyuuga clan generally put its two-year-old children? And also, where was Kimiko, and had she thought of this yet?

The answer to his last question was apparently 'no', as there was no sign of the girl, to Shisui's great relief.

The answer to the first question was 'in a sandbox'. Shisui presumed that this was not a permanent storage area, however. In any case, Neji (he was very helpfully wearing a bib with his name on it) was currently sitting in a sandbox, pushing a bright blue toy cart over the lumpy surface.

"So…are we just supposed to grab him, or something?" Shisui wondered aloud. "Somehow I don't think the rest of the Hyuuga are going to take that very well."

"I don't think there is any other way," Itachi pointed out. "He is too young to follow instruction."

"Well, here goes then…cover me if the Hyuuga start freaking out, okay?"

Neji stiffened in surprise as Shisui scooped him up, brushing some of the sand off his outfit before gathering him into his arms. Shisui winced as Neji opened his mouth to wail, but just then Itachi handed Neji the toy he had been playing with and the toddler fell silent.

"Great, that's half the test right there. Come on, let's get back."

"What are you doing with my relative, Uchiha?" a familiar voice shouted behind Shisui, and he regretted having relaxed so soon.

[A/N: I just remembered this fic, realized it was adorable, and finished this partial chapter. I hope you like it!]


End file.
